Inside the Institute

Facial Hair Removal  A New Gentler Way

It's typically not one of our favorite tasks - facial hair removal, with its usual burning, stinging, irritation, and tell-tale red marks. The whole process is either painful, difficult to do on your own, or both. Olay has changed that with its new Smooth Finish Facial Hair Removal Duo ($25), an innovative two-step depilatory hair remover. The first step is applying a protecting balm to prevent the irritation that typically comes with these types of products. The second step is the actual hair removal cream which wipes off after about eight minutes. So that you can personalize the process for yourself, Smooth Finish also comes in two strengths (fine/medium or medium/coarse).

As this is Olay's first foray into facial hair removal, we wanted to test its performance versus an old standard in the facial depilatory category. We had twenty women use the Olay product (split evenly between the two strengths) and another twenty use the traditional depilatory. Our testing showed that Olay was more effective at removing hair and did so with less irritation - a win-win. Another big plus was that testers didn't mind the smell, which is definitely not the case with most depilatories. Here's some of the positive feedback from our testers: "I was very impressed with the results. It's not only easy to use but there's also no offensive odor. Hair came off easily and pretty quickly", and "Great product! I will be switching".

Bottom Line: Olay's new depilatory offers an easy, non-irritating way to remove facial hair without icky odors. Try it and let us know what you think!

Good Housekeeping already has an account with this email address. Link your account to use Facebook to sign in to Good Housekeeping. To insure we protect your account, please fill in your password below.

Your information has been saved and an account has been created for you giving you full access to everything goodhousekeeping.com and Hearst Digital Media Network have to offer. To change your username and/or password or complete your profile, click here.